Wattstax

"Wattstax" Bill Cherry, Cherrytree Productions Columbia Pictures 12/13/72 "Wattstax" was a concert - a very special kind of concert, given by an entire Black recording company. For all of the summer of '72, every member of the Stax Organization's staff was involved, in one way or another, with creating a benefit concert for the Southern California community of Watts on the last day of the Seventh Annual Watts Summer Festival. On August 20, more than one hundred thousand people witnessed a seven-hour show in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at a donation of $1 per seat. All of the money was turned over to the community. The entertainers' expenses, the equipment and the promotion and advertising were all paid for by the Stax Organization in conjunction with the Schlitz Brewing Company. The performance was a smashing success, so was the benefit. Ticket sales benefited the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation, the Martin Luther King Hospital in Watts and future Watts Summer Festivals. "Wattstax" has now become a feature-film immortalizing, not only those who came to perform, but, also, those who came to witness the event and those who live in communities of which Watts is symbolic. Of the twelve four-man camera crews that recorded the event and later shot the community scenes, 45 members were skilled Blacks who have been "discovered" for Hollywood. Two of the people who share their views of life with us from restaurants, barber shops and front porches will soon be seen in dramatic roles in upcoming films - they too have been "discovered." Another discovery has been the talents of Stax executives Al Bell, Larry Shaw and Forest Hamilton, who before this year had never been involved with film-making. "Wattstax" is a film about this very special kind of people - the people who are seldom heard and these individuals who have listened. We have seen many films recently about Black people, but none of them represented the real people of the National Black community until "Wattstax." The film is based upon the music of Black America, the stuff upon which much of the recreation of the Black community is based. The rhythms and the lyrics are both explicitly defined by the method used in editing the visual aspects of this feature film. As a song is performed, the camera moves out to the audience, then breaks away into the community and visual elaboration on the theme of the tune. And "Wattstax" also reaches the people . . . . . they talk about the subject too. The opening song, "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get," moves from the people of the community today, through the people's revolt of 1965, and back to the present. The concert performances of songs from gospel, to pop, to jazz are used as products of the life of the people. Soon it becomes apparent what kind of an art form Black music is - it is one way the people of the Black community can express their feelings on every aspect of their lives. It is the "Living Word." The songs express divergent opinions on a variety of topics; so do the people we hear from. The film deliberately uses only one entertainer's point of view on these topics. Richard Pryor and his tragically humorous comments on life, people and situations, serve as another thread through the exposition of the many themes. And there are so many themes in the film. "Wattstax" is a film about people, and how very special these people are - but one other thing becomes apparent as the people unfold. The music is the message, but it is also the method. As the film unfolds, the viewer realizes that he does not mean merely financial support. The songs Stax artists record are forged from the lifestyle of the community, and when they are put through a record company, the rhythms and the lyrics become a means of gaining revenue, and thus power. What the Stax Organization has done is take the pain and frustration of the ghetto, transform it into power, and utilize that power in turning money and strength back in the community. That power flow did not stop the day after the concert - portions of the proceeds from the film will also be given to a variety of non-profit national organizations across the country. "Wattstax" takes its audiences through 300 years in history, through a six-hour concert documenting that history in music. In the framework of a two-hour film, it demonstrates the vitality of a people who have created a rich culture out of the left-overs of a nation and transformed it into power. "Wattstax" is a film about a very special kind of people, made by very special people, at a very special time. The happening took place on an August Sunday, under a hot sun and an unusually clear sky, in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. What seemed like the entire Black population of Los Angeles County turned out in incredibly uninhibited clothes to spend an equally uninhibited afternoon with the largest number of Black entertainers ever assembled to contribute their talents to benefit their own people.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• soul
• stax
• concert
• black
• community
• Hayes
• festival
• Hamilton
• Larry
• Shaw
• Al
• Bell

[DutchKalhoun]

This is back when you could go to a show and didn't have bunch of young pussy-ass kids pulling out guns and fuckin it all up! Folks had respect for one another back then.

[AvEryBadApPLe]

@figthersdreams hmm, only if they'll related to w. lol

[figthersdreams]

@RJTheMack At least you guys had a spirit of collectiveness back then. Now it's to each his own. Everybody tres to make his money then keep it to himself, and you got black on black violence too. The world's a F.cked up place. Obama didn't change anything for black people in America, other then giving kids hope of one day becoming president...

[figthersdreams]

I wounder what Malcom X would have thought of that. So much black people getting together to sing and dance. How was that supposed to change things for us?

[afrosensuous]

@2002HereICome....I agree with you on a social level, but I was merely basing it on he musical, entertaining and artistic fashion this music was displayed. Yeah, folks nowadays don't know how to act. Plus, with the way music is nowadays, we wouldn't get the SOUL music, we'd get shit like Lil Wayne, T.I, and other weirdos.

[2008HereICome]

@afrosensuous: I have to disagree with you when you say they need to do a Wattstax 2010 or 2011 because people don't know how to act nowadays. We're living in much different times and it's not about partying and enjoying life nowadays like it was back then.

A gathering of this magnitude in today's society is unheard of because people are to wild, rampant and really don't have anything to appreciate. Things would get out of hand, people would be killed and it would be a stone cold mess.

[afrosensuous]

Man, I attended this event when I was a kid. We begged our Mom to take us and it was an awesome experience. They need to do a Wattstax 2010 or 2011. Look at all those beautiful black people. There was no gang-bangin back then and no riots. Probably because we told ourselves "I am somebody"!!!

[MsTexas73]

I think they showed a flash of Miles Davis during Luther Ingrams' part.

[proni1]

jesse jacksons hot mike on fox news

[OpakeArawra2]

you can bite them off as long as i can put them in your tender mouth, baby